What Next for the Banking Sector?
Barclays and HSBC, two of the UK’s largest banks, posted a combined half-year profit of £6 billion this month, indicating that the worst of the banking crisis may finally be over for UK banks. Royal Bank of Scotland has also announced positive results, posting a half-year pre-tax profit of £15 million.
HSBC and Barclays, which shrugged off the near-collapse of the financial system to report combined half-year profits of nearly £3 billion each, credited strong investment banking for their positive results. Both banks had avoided taxpayer support during last year's banking crisis.
The banks have, however, announced writedowns amounting to almost £13 billion, with Barclays' bad debts rising 86% to £4.56 billion and HSBC's bad debts climbing 39% to $13.9 billion (or £8.3 billion). Part-nationalised RBS also wrote off £7.52 billion in bad loans this month, stoking concerns that the banking crisis may still have some way to go.
Take a position on a sector
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Updated: 18/08/09
